UCI Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD student Piper Wallingford uses a one square-foot frame divided into quadrants to take a survey of the variety of mussels, barnacles and others species on the tide pool rocks at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lauren Pandori a UCI PhD candidate points out California mussels in the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG).

Ritika Singh, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology student, uses a one square-foot frame divided into quadrants to take a survey of the number mussels, barnacles and others species on the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Ecology and Evolutionary Biology assistant professor Cascade Sorte examines mussels in the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ritika Singh, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology student, shows a whelk, a snail that eats barnacles and mussel, she found in the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UCI Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD student Piper Wallingford, left, and undergrad Ritika Singh, conduct survey of the number of mussels and other species in the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UCI Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD student Piper Wallingford records the number of of mussels and other species she counted within a square-foot frame in the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UCI Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD student Piper Wallingford displays her chart of the number of of mussels and other species she counted in the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lauren Pandori a UCI PhD candidate counts mussels at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG).

Researchers from the UCI Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department conduct survey of the number of mussels and other species in the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. Pictured, clockwise from bottom, PhD student Piper Wallingford, Ritika Singh, and assistant professor Cascade Sorte. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Researchers from the UCI Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department conduct survey of the number of mussels and other species in the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. Pictured, from left, student Ritika Singh, assistant professor Cascade Sorte and PhD student Piper Wallingford. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UCI Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD student Piper Wallingford stretches out at transect line, used to take a survey of the variety of mussels, barnacles and others species on the tide pools at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UCI Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD student Piper Wallingford uses a one square-foot frame divided into quadrants to take a survey of the variety of mussels, barnacles and others species on the tide pool rocks at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 as part of a study how climate change impacts tidal pools. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Much of climate change research is focused on the big problems. Models forecast how quickly polar ice caps are melting in the Arctic and whether rising sea levels might drown entire islands in the South Pacific.

But two doctoral students working in the Sorte Lab at UC Irvine are searching for smaller signs of climate change in the tide pools of Orange County beaches. These subtle, incremental adjustments to the environment are hard to track, but Lauren Pandori and Piper Wallingford know just what to look for.

They’re looking for unicorns.

On a recent Thursday afternoon at a certain stretch of Crystal Cove frequented by sunbathers and vacationers, Pandori and Wallingford crouch over measuring tape stretched across a jagged outcropping, keeping their eyes peeled for the dark unicorn snail.

“I think ‘If I were a snail where would I hide?'” said Pandori, 25. “It’s very calming work.”

‘Climate invader’

By Jeff Goertzen, The Orange County Register/SCNG

The dark unicorn snail is what’s known as a climate invader, according to Cascade Sorte. Sorte is a professor of evolutionary biology and ecology and oversees the Sorte Lab, where students research how species react to climate change.

“All of these organisms have coping mechanisms,” Sorte said. “The question is: Is it enough? Will they win or will climate change win?”

In the case of the unicorn snail, scientists suspect a changing climate may have driven the carnivorous mollusk from its native habitat in Baja California up the coast. The purple-and-green-hued snail was only found as far north as San Diego County back in the 1970s. Now it’s traveled all the way to Laguna Beach.

Here’s one problem with that: Unicorn snails compete with whelks, smaller snails native to Orange County beaches, to feed on mussels. Whelks are now under threat of being squeezed out by the dwindling food supply.

The end result? A drastic change to the numbers and types of creatures that normally make up the ecosystem of Crystal Cove tide pools.

Dime-sized predators

Since they haven’t spotted any unicorn snails in their 30-minute once-over of this stretch of beach, the students switch gears to hunt for whelks and download temperature data from coin-size thermometers bolted to the rocks.

Pandori spots a whelk smaller than a dime inching toward a mussel, its tooth out and ready to bore into the shell and feast. She picks it up, marks its location on the measuring tape and places the creature back in the same spot to resume its slow advance on its prey.

“We’re seeing changes in (tide pool) communities already,” said Wallingford, 29, who has scuba-dived and scoured rocks in search of the dark unicorn snail. “If we think of what a pristine community is, it’s not going to be what we’re used to today.”

Wallingford’s research is focused on the expansion of the dark unicorn snail from Baja and whether these bigger snails could push out species like the California mussel. They might be under threat just by way of being the snails’ chosen food supply.

“They’re so important to the ecosystem,” Pandori said of the California mussel. “One of the main reasons why we have so many different animals in intertidal areas is because of mussels.”

Mussels are considered a keystone or foundation species – the cornerstone of a rich and tiny universe contained to these small saltwater pools. If the mussels disappear, so could barnacles, sea anemones, mollusks and a whole host of other species. According to research performed at Cal Poly Pomona, since the 1980s mussel coverage on rocks has dropped by 31.2 percent throughout California.

The extent to which they could decline is at the heart of Pandori’s research. She is trying to find out whether small cracks in the rocks can act as refuges where mussels can better weather the changing climate. From these slivers of space they may be able to produce better-adapted offspring.

“When people model what future ecosystems look like as a result of climate change they usually do it at really big scales,” Pandori said. “There’s so much that goes on in these smaller habitats that I think needs to be accounted for.”

A native of California, Lauren attended Cal State Long Beach where she majored in journalism and political science. She briefly lived in Santiago, Chile where she edited an online magazine and worked as a translator for doctors from Malaysia following Chile's 8.8 earthquake in 2010. Lauren moved back to the states in 2011 and now lives in Long Beach. A runner, rock climber and board game enthusiast, Lauren is perpetually training for the next race day.

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